India’s cumulative exports under the generalised system of preference (GSP) tariff lines of the United States so far have not declined in the period after GSP withdrawal, i.e., from June to October this year, as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal recently told parliament.
While reviewing, the office of the US trade representative (USTR) added several demands, including greater market access for a number of its products and used the non-reciprocal GSP benefit as a lever to extract further concessions from India, an Indian business daily quoted Goyal as saying.
Though India took its best efforts to arrive at a mutually beneficial trade package, the US review culminated in issuance of withdrawal notice by the United States on March 4 this year and GSP benefits was withdrawn with effect from June 5.
In 2018, India exported goods worth of $6.3 billion to the United States under the GSP, which was around 12.1 per cent of India’s total export to the United States. The average duty concessions accruing on account of GSP were almost $240 million in 2018, which was about 3.8 per cent of India’s exports to the US availing the GSP benefits. The impact varies across products, depending on the individual product level concessions which were availed under the GSP.
The US launched an eligibility review of India’s compliance with the GSP market access criterion in April last year.
